Some MIT researchers posted an important announcement regarding the debate on whether the increasing intensity of hurricanes is caused by global warming. Their position is that this argument is distracting us from a much more immediate problem: The continued rapid expansion of building in coastal areas. Whether we caused the hurricane intensity is not as important as the fact that we’re continuing to build homes and condos in places where that intensity will cause destruction.

It’s the lemming effect. Even though we know its dangerous, we take the gamble so we can enjoy being by the water. The problem is that the people whose waterfront homes are destroyed by hurricanes expect the government to rebuild them, at everyone’s expense. This gets debated but no one ever suggests that maybe we should ban all building within a certain distance from the shorelines. My suggestion would be that it be based on altitude above sea level, since we all know you need to go to the high ground in a flood.

Of course there’s no chance this is going to happen. Washington, DC itself is built on a swamp that is close to sea level and essentially a part of the Chesapeake bay basin. This spring we saw floods on the Mall closing government buildings and public transportation throughout the capitol. Yet we heard no warnings in congress or elsewhere that we should consider the consequences of building our capitol in such a vulnerable spot.

So, while I salute the MIT geniuses for their effort, realistically I doubt anyone is going to pay attention- its just too nice out there by the beach.